


Waking Up

by PrincessAmericaChavez



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Fjord's Patron - Freeform, JESTER JUST WANTS FJORD BACK AND IS NOT GIVING UP ON HIM OKAY?, Partial Mind Control, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 15:11:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16200095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessAmericaChavez/pseuds/PrincessAmericaChavez
Summary: Convinced by Avantika’s encouragement, Fjord sticks his sword inside one of the temple’s altars and a sudden thunderwave pushes everyone back away from him, making them tumble to the floor. When Jester sits up again, Fjord is unconscious, floating in the air and shinning with a bright yellow glow.“Fjord!” She rushes to his side and puts a hand on his arm. She casts a spell to cure his wounds, but it does nothing to wake him up. Turning around, she looks at the rest of her friends and the pirates they’ve been traveling with all day. “What’s wrong with him?!” She shouts, voice high pitched with panic. “What’s happening? What’s happening?!”





	Waking Up

The adventure through the jungle goes well, at least as far as Jester can guess. It’s exhausting and humid and they have to fight and kill a bunch of angry snake people, but none of that is too different to what they’ve done before in their travels. She’s far more preoccupied with the way Avantika keeps stealing glances at Fjord, and how he seems to be entirely okay with her flirtatious advances —unlike the shy flustrated reactions she tends to get—, her mind keeps going back to earlier in the morning, how he’d looked into her eyes and for the first time withheld the truth.

And yet, all of that —anger, confusion, jealousy, doubts— vanishes the second things go wrong. 

Convinced by Avantika’s encouragement, Fjord sticks his sword inside one of the temple’s altars and a sudden thunderwave pushes everyone back away from him, making them tumble to the floor. When she sits up again, Fjord is unconscious, floating in the air and shinning with a bright yellow glow. 

“Fjord!” She rushes to his side and puts a hand on his arm. She casts a spell to cure his wounds, but it does nothing to wake him up. Turning around, she looks at the rest of her friends and the pirates they’ve been traveling with all day. “What’s wrong with him?!” She shouts, voice high pitched with panic. “What’s happening? What’s happening?!”

“He is part of the ritual, now,” Avantika says calmly, a satisfied glint in her eyes and the hint of a smile in her face.

“Ja, what does that mean?” Caleb frowns, and Jester can see him playing with something between his fingers as if preparing a spell.

“It means, he now serves a greater purpose like I promised he would.” 

“Yeah, but is he okay? He looks all, like, dead,” Beau says, and she’s trying to be intimidating but concern taints her voice.

“He’s not dead. His body is just a tool now for our master. He’s more alive than ever.”

“That doesn’t sound too good,” Caduceus murmurs, looking at the scene. “I’m not sure he had a  _choice_ in the matter.”

“We are chosen ones. What choice is there to be made?”

“To not become a god’s living weapon,” Caleb snaps. “Why are you not like him right now?”

“I am  _the_ chosen one, my friend. He was just one more step towards my reward.”

Without a warning, Caleb shoots a spell and just like that the battle begins. Jester watches in shock, still holding on tightly to Fjord’s arm. He’s not waking up. He’s not waking up and everyone else is fighting Avantika but her first worry is that Fjord might be dying, or worse, and she needs to do something about it. She prays to The Traveler for guidance but gets no reply. There has to be  _something_ though, in all her magic that she can- Remove the curse! She can do that! 

Jester closes her eyes and invokes the Traveler’s magic. 

“No! Stop her before she-”

Avantika’s voice disappears along with every other noise as the spell takes action. When Jester opens her eyes, she’s in a dark empty room with stone walls much like the temple they were at a second ago. She’s completely alone.

“Guys?” She calls and her voice echoes in the darkness surrounding her. “Guys, if this is a joke this isn’t funny. Where are you?”

Nothing. 

“Traveler?”

Still nothing.  _Shit._

That’s when she realizes she’s not holding on to Fjord anymore. 

“Fjord?!”

As soon as his name leaves her lips, something appears in the darkness: a big glowing yellow eye staring directly at her as she yelps with surprise.

“You know, you really shouldn’t scare people like that, probably. It’s not nice, you know? And my mama always said that staring at people was rude, so you are kinda being very rude right now just so you know,” she blurts out all in one breath, mostly because she’s scared and hoping to at least get a reaction from it. Nothing. Just that intense silent stare that makes her skin crawl. “Okay…” 

She tries to turn her back on the eye and discovers something that wasn’t there before: a stairwell. Her eyes follow it and, on the far top, she recognizes the back of a familiar silhouette.

“Fjord!” She shouts, but he doesn’t even flinch at her voice. “Fjord! Can you hear me? Fjord!”

Maybe he’s too far away. Okay. Okay, she can get closer. Jester takes off running upstairs. She passes by several broken statues that she spares no glance on. At some point, a dull pain hits her in the ribs and nearly knocks the breath out of her. She feels the dark world around her blur for an instant and then comes back into focus. Another wave of pain and she has to put all her concentration to focus on whatever magic is keeping her here. When she manages to stabilize herself, she finds she’s fallen to her knees on the stairs. With a huff, she gets back up and keeps climbing. 

She can feel the eye’s intense stare behind her, making her gut twist uneasily, but she doesn’t look back.

“Fjord?” She calls when she reaches the top, but he’s not there. 

Above her, there’s no ceiling anymore, only a starless sky. The stairs are gone, too, and she finds herself standing on a platform and surrounded by a stormy sea. Far away, she sees Fjord’s back. He’s standing  _above_ the water and glowing yellow like he was in the temple. She shouts his name again but still gets no answer. When she tries to take a step towards him, she discovers that unlike him she cannot walk on water. Her foot sinks and she nearly loses her balance, tumbling forward. 

A firm hand suddenly grabs Jester’s and pulls her back into the platform before she falls. She turns around and finds The Traveler standing by her side. 

“Careful, child,” he chimes in. 

“Traveler!” Jester smiles relieved. “Oh, I’m so glad that you are here. Can you help Fjord? There’s something wrong with him.”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” she hears him sigh with frustration. “This realm is beyond even  _my_ control.”

“How?”

“There are dark and powerful things in this world that are best left untampered with,” he says, putting a hand over her shoulder. “It is not wise for you to continue fighting against it.”

“But I have to help Fjord,” Jester replies, voice breaking with pain at the mere thought of leaving him behind. “I can’t just give up on him like that.”

“He belongs to another.”

“No, Traveler, please. I can’t leave him. I can’t- I don’t wanna lose him. Please,” she begs, tears rolling down her cheeks.

There’s a long pause before a hand reaches up for her cheek and cleans the tears away. 

“Alright. I will try to shield you as best as I can,” he says, voice soft and comforting. 

The uneasiness that’d filled her with despair suddenly disappears and Jester feels freed from the eye’s intense glare. She breathes with relief and discovers that some of the desperation that’d threatened with breaking her resolve washes away, replaced by the familiar warmth of her deity.

“Thank you,” she says with a quick smile, then dives into the water.

The first wave hits her without a warning and drags her under. For a moment, there’s only darkness and confusion underwater and Jester is hit by a wave of fear all over again. She can’t tell which way is up or down. 

 _Bubbles! Fjord said to follow the bubbles,_ she recalls and lets out a bit of precious little air she has left. It’s thankfully enough for her to find where the surface is and break through it with a large gasp for air. She coughs a bit of the salt water that found its way into her throat and gets her head together. Okay, she can do this.

_Oh, Traveler, let’s hope my dad being watery helps me with this one._

Jester begins swimming towards Fjord’s unmoving figure, fighting against the currents trying to drag her away and the angry waves that keep finding their way into her eyes and nose. Finally, she reaches him and grabs on to his ankle. It’s enough to anchor her and keep her afloat for now. He doesn’t react.

“Fjord!” She shouts, trying to shake his leg. “Fjord, you have to wake up!”

Finally, he moves. Ever so slowly, his head tilts down towards her, eyes distant and empty. He looks at her like he can’t recognize her face, but then speaks:

“Jester…” His voice is devoid of the drawl she’s so painfully fond of. He’s using his other voice, the one he accidentally slipped into this morning, and it makes it feel like he’s somebody else entirely, but at least he seems to know her name.

“Yes, yes, yes. It’s me! I’m here! Fjord, I’m here to get you! You have to wake up.”

He frowns, but he doesn’t look worried, just mildly confused. Before she can say anything else, a weird current of water wraps itself around her legs and pulls her into the dark ocean. Jester does her best to hold her breath, but the surprise is too much and she’s left struggling to free herself and swim out for air, neither of which she manages to do. She goes deeper and deeper, towards many yellow and hungry eyes and all she can do with her last breath is  _scream_ soundless bubbles-

A hand grabs on to her wrist again and pulls her up. The current relents just enough for her to be dragged up towards the surface and out of the water. Coughing, she holds on to what she assumes to be the Traveler’s chest as she recovers and discovers, glancing down, that she’s standing above the water.

“Wha-”

“ _Jester?”_

Her head snaps up because she  _knows_ that voice, that accent, that worry. Fjord is holding on to her, face twisted with worry and confusion as if he’d just woken up from a nightmare.

“What are you doing here?”

“Fjord,” she breathes out, shakily. “I… I came to… I came to get you… You have to wake up. Please… Avantika… Avantika was tricking you.”

“What?” He tilts his head, looking even more confused.

“Yes, yes, yes. She was all like ‘wah now the power will be mine!’ or something and you are just like floating in the air and she wants to use you and she’s very crazy and I think everyone else is fighting her now but I’m trying to wake you up or you will stay like this forever.”

“That’s- A lot. But… this is my place, what I’m supposed to do.”

“It’s not! Please, Fjord. We’ll- we’ll figure it out together. Please, you have to wake up.”

“Jester, I don’t know-”

“ _Please, Fjord!”_ She shouts, grabbing on to his armor. “I don’t want to lose you. I can’t-”

She feels the spell being released and finds herself suddenly standing back in the temple, her hands firmly pressed against someone else. Reality hits her all at once, with both exhaustion and the realization that she’s much sorer than she was when she cast the spell. Dizziness hits her all at once and she nearly falls over before a pair of arms steadies her.

“Jester, are you alright?”

“Fjord!” Her voice shakes with relieved tears as she looks up and sees him awake and standing in front of her, with that cute worried look he gets when she’s hurt. “I am. I’m good. I’m good. Are  _you_  alright?”

“I- I think so, yeah. Thanks to you,” he says.

“I promised I would look out for you,” she smiles.

“You did,” he murmurs. “Thank you.”

Without a warning, he pulls her into a tight hug that, after a second of surprise, she returns. Jester lets relief wash over her at the feeling of his steady heartbeat beneath his armor and his even breathing between her horns.

“Uh- guys?” Beau’s voice reaches them from a few feet away. “I don’t wanna, like, interrupt anything but… Avantika is getting away. With our only boat. Pretty sure we’re about to be stranded in this damn island if we don’t move quickly.”

“Oh, shit. Yeah. Right,” Fjord pulls away from the hug, face blushed deeply. “Right. We should-” He clears his throat and changes into a more serious expression. “I’d like a word with her. She’s  _mine.”_

 _Not if I get her first,_ Jester thinks grimly.

As they move running through the temple’s multiple rooms and dungeons towards the jungle beach, she tries her best not to think of the distant sensation of being  _watched_ by something. Any god that wants to take Fjord away will have to get through  _her_ first.


End file.
